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– The CEO of EYDAP, a few days after the tragedy of Tempi, sounds the alarm to the two ministers.
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– What is the danger that threatens the smooth water supply of millions of inhabitants in the Attica basin
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– What is behind the dramatic warning of Ch. Sachinis and what is the problem with Mornos.
by Paris Karvounopoulos
A few days after the tragedy in Tempi, a shocking document was signed by the CEO of EYDAP Haris Sachinis. Its recipients are the Minister of State and Supervision of the Ministry of Transport, Giorgos Gerapetritis, and the Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. Skrekas. Dated March 9, 2023. Subject: “Risk of secure water supply in Attica”.
As the CEO of EYDAP Haris Sachinis writes – who presented his work to EYDAP at the Concert Hall on the morning of Tuesday, March 28 – he addresses the two ministers to inform them about “the issue of the safe supply of water to Attica in the event of a failure of the External Water Supply System”.
He refers to the Mornos Aqueduct and expresses his concerns:
“…in the event of damage to the Mornos Aqueduct, something that has already happened in the past and at the same time a failure of the now insecure Union Aqueduct, a deficit of 30-40% of the necessary amount of water for water supply in Attica will be created, which has unpredictable consequences, as a significant percentage of Athens will be without water for several days.”
Mr. Sachinis refers to a technical problem that existed in the late 2000s, which was addressed. However, as he argues in his document, “as EYDAP realizing the criticality of the above, we proceeded from 2019 to the necessary actions and by decision of the Board of Directors of our company, the conduct of the relevant tenders was approved as well as the financing with own resources of all the necessary projects that will prevent these risks. The studies have already been completed.”
And then why is there a problem and danger of being left without water in Attica?
The answer is of particular interest and is given by the CEO himself:
“These infrastructures are 100% owned by the Greek State through the fixed assets company of EYDAP, which has been responsible for them and which, since the summer of 2022, has expressed its intention to assign to EYDAP the construction of their improvement works with a budget of 80 million euros in order to minimize the possibility of the above scenario.
Unfortunately, however, so far the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport has not yet decided on how to finance them nor has it proceeded with the signing of the relevant scheduled contract with EYDAP, despite its repeated warnings”.
From 2019 what exactly are they thinking to correct the problem that threatens the water supply of Attica? Why does the CEO of EYDAP, now after all this time and after the tragedy of Tempi, decides to finally send a warning document about the potential disaster?
In the epilogue of the document, Mr. Sachinis becomes almost dramatic in order to express but also to convince the ministers of the seriousness of the situation:
He writes:
“I would ask you to intervene immediately to:
- specify the place of funding and sign the Contract between the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport, EPEYDAP, and EYDAP and
- these projects to be excluded due to urgency from the procedures of 4412.
As I am sure you understand the urgency of the matter, I would ask you to contribute to the launch of the above A and B as soon as possible. If you consider that this is not possible, we could possibly proceed with the announcement of the relevant tenders by withholding the cost from the price we attribute to EPEYDAP for the supply of raw water, so that these projects are not delayed.”
As if they have not been delayed since 2019 when – always according to the CEO of EYDAP – the problem was identified. However, no solution was found and now he is trying to persuade the ministers to do something.
The tragedy at Tempi has apparently begun to reveal the problems of proper functioning in many areas of the state apparatus. The worst thing is that as with trains, so with EYDAP, the problems were known to those who had or have the responsibility to operate them, but the solutions were never given. In Tempi this had the result we know. Will we at least be able to avoid the worst in EYDAP?
